Washington Post: Investigation Underway as Assault in Mumbai Ends

“Their plan was to kill 5,000 people, we recovered two big bombs, other than guns,” said R. R. Patil, Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister. “They were using mobile phones, GPS and satellite phones. We have many clues from these.”

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Indian intelligence officials said the gunmen who launched the coordinated attacks appeared well trained and well prepared. The assailants seemed familiar with the layouts of the two hotels and the Jewish center, giving them a tactical advantage over the police and Indian army troops sent in to dislodge them.

“This is a big-scale operation, but it is not beyond the capability of Lashkar-i-Taiba,” said the intelligence officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the nature of his work. “The person we have caught is a foot soldier; he is from Pakistan’s Punjab,” the officer said, referring to a region divided by the India-Pakistan border.

“He has clearly said he is with Lashkar and that he was trained,” the officer said. “They came via a ship. They hijacked a boat called Kuber, shot the man in charge on the boat. They were carrying a CD with the photographs of all the targets of the site, details. It is clear that they were determined to target India’s iconic locations and deter foreign investment.”

The Times of India, also citing police interrogation of a captured attacker, reported Saturday that several of the attackers had lived in Mumbai a few months ago, pretending to be students and conducted reconnaissance of the Oberoi and Taj hotels.

A December 2006 letter written by a Mumbai Intelligence Bureau official and obtained by The Post says that hundreds of operatives from Lashkar-i-Taiba had received maritime training.

Members of the group “are being trained to handle large boats, laying of mines in coastal zones and planting of explosives under dams, bridges, ships etc.,” says the letter, which was marked “secret.”

“[T]hey are being taught navigational techniques, rescue operations, surveillance methods, concealment of explosives and underwater attack on enemy’s coastal targets/vessels,” the letter says.

Sriprakash Jaiswal, minister of state for home affairs, told reporters Friday that India’s state governments were warned to boost coastal security two years ago. “But now with the new challenges, we will have to deal with this issue on a war footing,” he said.

At a news conference in Mumbai, a marine commando, his face masked with a black handkerchief, said those who attacked the 400-room Taj were “very, very familiar with the hotel layout.”

“We do not know the layout of hotels, and hence we had to find our way,” the commando added. “There was blood all over the floor, bodies lying strewn in the blood.

“They were a very, very determined lot. They were moving from one place to the other,” the commando said. “When we entered, there were three to four terrorists inside. Not everybody can fire AK-47 weapons like that. They were trained somewhere.”